Have humans developed natural defenses against suicide?

Pedro_P

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▼ While co-organizing a symposium a few years ago, a distinguished evolutionary psychologist named Nicholas Humphrey sought an expert to explore a mystery dating back to the time of Charles Darwin. "Natural selection will never produce in a being anything injurious to itself," Darwin wrote inOn the Origin of Species.
But in humans, natural selection apparently did exactly that. Suicide is the leading cause of violent death, striking down about 800,000 people worldwide each year—more than all wars and murders combined, according to the World Health Organization.
Humphrey, an emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, knew that a handful of evolutionary thinkers had offered ways to resolve this paradox. But he couldn't find an explanation he thought fit most instances of suicide. So he decided to explore the topic and give the presentation himself.
Applying an evolutionary eye to epidemiological data and human cultures, Humphrey concluded that suicide was likely the tragic byproduct of a vital adaptation: the sophisticated human brain. While publishing a paper on his work after the conference, he found that another researcher had similar ideas. A psychotherapist named Clifford Soper, now in private practice in Lisbon, had done Ph.D. work concluding that the ravages of suicide are a consequence of human intelligence and have shaped our minds and cultures.
Such arguments may clash with the medical view that suicide is driven chiefly by psychiatric illness. And some clinicians may worry that people at risk could misinterpret the ideas as suggesting suicide is "natural." In fact, Humphrey and Soper propose that if what makes us human has put us at risk, it has also saved us. They argue that, faced with the persistent threat of suicide, humans have developed a set of defenses, such as religious beliefs, that are crucial elements of our culture and psychology.
"Humans very rarely die by suicide because we are superbly designed to deal with anything life throws at us, but our antisuicide defenses are not fail-safe either," Soper says. He suggests that (▪ ▪ ▪)

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themaskeditor

No human being would want to die. There are natural defense mechanisms that stop us of mind saying us to stop it.  

No one would want to kill itself. But in some people there can be defects. Like wise many human beings cannot handle mental stress much better.

parivijesh100

Suicide is primarily due to highest level of stress being faced by a person & pessimistic thought the one is at impossible stage to come out of it. With exercise, spital support, increasing family comfort, thus tendency is bound to come down.  Hand holding by some one is most important for thus.

asr335704

Humans choose suicide only in worst possible scenarios like when they either have highest level of stress OR they feel that they can not do anything to fight back the problems they are facing hence think to end their life.
Otherwise like any living organism, Humans also try their best to survive everything that life throws at them.